Sister Joan Chittister famously said, "We are each called to go through life reclaiming the planet an inch at a time until the Garden of Eden grows green again." Reflecting on that journey -- a blog at a time -- is the focus of this site.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

And another thing ...

Reading ANYTHING Jim Naughton writes is always recommended.

Reading this just-posted-to-the-UK Guardian's-"Comment Is Free" piece is REQUIRED for anybody who cares about or is wondering about what's next for the Anglican Communion.

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The right gains groundLambeth runs the risk of heading a communion synonymous with the agenda of the American right

The Anglican Covenant may never come to pass. Or its doctrinal statements may be so unobjectionable, and its enforcement mechanisms so weak, that every church in the communion will hastily sign on. Or the gay-friendly churches threatened with diminished status may realise that they will always have more opportunities than resources for mission within the communion, and happily agree to run their trains on track number two.

Yet if Rowan Williams succeeds in his misguided effort to establish a single-issue magisterium that determines a church's influence within the communion, a significant risk remains. That risk is run not by the Anglican left, which has nothing practical to lose, nor by the Anglican right, whose leaders embarrass less easily than Donald Trump and don't fear public opprobrium. Rather, the parties at risk are the Church of England and the office of the Archbishop of Canterbury, which may find themselves at the head of a communion synonymous with the agenda of the American right.

If Americans, Canadians and other gay-friendly churches are deemed insufficiently Anglican, the struggle to determine who speaks for the communion will be waged between the dozy dons and preening peacocks who lead the Church of England, and Episcopal schismatics whose public relations are handled by the folks who operated the Swift Boat Veterans campaign against John Kerry in 2004. Early wagering favours the Swifties giving three goals.

The American donors who helped fuel the Anglican schism – Howard Ahmanson, Richard Mellon Scaife, the Coors brewing family – have been losing interest of late thanks to the Episcopal church's recent string of legal victories and the Anglican Church in North America's failure to lure away any more than about 3% of the Episcopal church's membership. But awarding the Anglican brand in North America to the schismatics would reverse the trend by handing the American right the opportunity to wrap its agenda in the endorsement of a major mainstream religious organisation.

As we've seen in inter-communion struggles, American money in the pockets of the right's figureheads causes words written by Martyn Minns and Chris Sugden to issue from the mouths of high-profile prelates, after which a gullible press transcribes them as the authentic voice of impoverished Christians around the globe.

The loudest and most frequently-quoted voices in the Anglican communion, then, would be stridently anti-gay and anti-Islamic; supportive of American military adventurism; against a two-state solution in the Middle East; in favour of teaching creationism or intelligent design to school children; sceptical about climate change; and adamant that homosexuality can be cured.

Nothing about Williams suggests the will or the skill to prevail in a struggle for political (rather than ecclesial) supremacy with the Anglican right. To wit: Williams has remained steadfastly silent as Peter Akinola, the darling of American conservatives, has twice pushed for harshly restrictive anti-gay legislation in Nigeria. This legislation, which violates the UN's Universal Declaration on Human Rights, has been condemned by every major human rights organisation and the European parliament. Even the State Department of President George W Bush expressed concern. But Rowan Williams made not a peep.

Nor has Williams forced from Akinola an accounting of the horrific 2004 massacre of 650 Muslims in Yelwa. The retributive massacre, documented by Human Rights Watch and reported in a cover story in The Atlantic, was perpetrated by organised militias wearing tags that identified them as members of the Christian Association of Nigeria. The massacre took place when Akinola was president of the CAN, a position from which his colleagues removed him at their next opportunity.

If the Archbishop gets his covenant, he will no longer be portrayed as the harried peacemaking father of an argumentative clan just trying to get everyone to sit down for dinner. He and his church will be the most visible symbols of a communion that has traded its good name to the American right and Peter Akinola simply to avoid admitting the possibility that people in loving, committed gay relationships can preach the Gospel and serve the church.

2 comments:

Yea! you guys should be worried the majority of Aligican are in African and that place is conservative so? What are you going to do?

About the creationism in schools. That will not happen. It was ruled in the Dover case that it is illegal to teach creationism in schools so...

I think that the Aligican communion has the right to kick out the Episcopal Church and SO WHAT IT THEY DO? If they want to remain orthodox they have that right. Maybe in the future they will accept that they world has changed a bit and become more tolerant. Until then to bad.

Personally I hope that the AAC gets the Aligican approval. They deserve it! You guys have to realize that the Aligican(AAC) have values that are more closely alined to MOST of the rest of the Aligican communion. So let them have it!!!

I think Jim makes some very good points. Especially of interest to me are his remarks regarding the Archbishop of Canterbury. We moderates in the U.S. tend to look to him to be a "fair" umpire in his role of protector of the unity in the A.C., however, with his silence as it pertains to Akinola's work, he has abdicated any moral authority he might have engendered. As a result, I personally, expect nothing from Rowan+++.

Welcome to my blog ...

... where I try to be really clear about what I'm clear about. For example:

Religious persecution is when you're prevented from exercising your beliefs, not when you're prevented from IMPOSING your beliefs.

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Until we end the blatant and indefensible discrimination of DOMA we are not living up to the pledge we make to be a nation of liberty and justice for all, we are not providing the equal protection guaranteed by the 14th Amendment to same-sex couples and we are failing to defend the self-evident truth that our forbearers fought to protect: that ALL people are created equal.

============ Using "biblical standards" to condemn those who understand that sexual orientation is morally neutral makes as much sense as using "biblical standards" to condemn astronomers who understand that the earth revolves around the sun. The Bible may have said it but that doesn't always settle it. ============ It's liberty and justice for all -- not some. It's respect the dignity of every human being -- not just straight ones. Got it? Great. Let's do it.

====== In order to keep moving forward toward liberty and justice for all we can't just be right about what the 1st Amendment protects. We have to be smart about how we respond to those who skipped the 9th Commandment and think lying is a Traditional Family Value. ======= Jesus said "Love your neighbor." Not "Love your neighbor unless your neighbor is gay."

Basic Bio

A cradle Episcopalian second generation Dodger fan ENFJ native of Los Angeles I was ordained in 1996 and currently serve as a Senior Associate at All Saints Church, Pasadena.
My family consists of my wife Lori, 2 dogs, (Luna and Betsy), 3 cats (Maui, Cherokee and Harold) and our four nearly-grown kids: Jim, Brian, Grace and Emily.
My life in the church has included everything from Junior Altar Guild with my Aunt Gretchen to my “obligatory young adult lapsed phase” to a tour of duty on the St. Paul’s, Ventura vestry where I also worked as parish secretary to a life-heart-soul changing experience as part of the Cursillo community to serving on my parish ECW Board to seminary at the School of Theology in Claremont to associate/day school chaplain positions at St. Mark’s, Altadena and St. Peter’s, San Pedro to Executive Director of Claiming the Blessing to my current parish position at All Saints Church. It’s been a long and winding road and the journey continues: an inch at a time.

Bottom Line:

A Comment On Comments

Strongly held perspectives are appreciated. Ad hominem attacks will be deleted. When in doubt, revisit page 305 of the BCP and if what you're typing doesn't meet the "respect the dignity" clause of the Baptismal Covenant then save us both some time and energy and don't hit "send."

DISCLAIMER

This blog is the personal weblog of one Susan Lynn Russell. The opinions expressed herein are hers and hers alone. The postions taken on matters theological or political (or anything else, for that matter) are in no way to be construed as the official positions of any other person, institution, group or organization.

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Smart things other people have said you should know about

“Faith in action is called politics. Spirituality without action is fruitless and social action without spirituality is heartless. We are boldly political without being partisan. Having a partisan-free place to stand liberates the religious patriot to see clearly, speak courageously, and act daringly.” -- Ed Bacon

“Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice. Justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love.” – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

"It's time for "tolerant" religious people to acknowledge the straight line between the official anti-gay theologies of their denominations and the deaths of these young people. Nothing short of changing our theology of human sexuality will save these young and precious lives." -- The Rt Rev Gene Robinson

"How can you initiate someone into the Body of Christ and then treat them like they’re half-assed baptized?" - The Rt Rev Barbara Harris

“I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” ~ Elie Wiesel, 1986 Nobel Peace Prize

"Resolve to be tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant with the weak and wrong. Sometime in your life, you will have been all of these." — Siddhārtha Gautama

"I'm so glad Mary didn't wait for the formulation of a Doctrine of the Incarnation before she said 'Yes' to God." -- Ed Bacon

"The great Easter truth is not that we will be born again someday but that we are to be alive here and now by the power of the resurrection." -- Philips Brooks (paraphrase)

"History belongs to the intercessors, who believe the future into being.” -- Walter Wink

“Patience, a quality of holiness may be sloth in the soul when associated with the lack of righteous indignation.” -- Abraham Heschel

"Don't tell me what you believe. Tell me what difference it makes that you believe!" -- Verna Dozier

“We establish no religion in this country, we command no worship, we mandate no belief. Nor will we ever. Church and state are, and must remain, separate. All are free to believe or not believe, all are free to practice a faith or not, and those who believe are free and should be free, to speak of and act on their belief. At the same time as our constitution prohibits state religion, establishment of it protects the free exercise of all religions. And walking this fine line requires government to be strictly neutral.” -- Ronald Reagan

Let's be clear. The fact that the State authorizes a marriage in no way compels any Church to perform or recognize it. Marriage equality merely guarantees equality under the law to all citizens; it does not compel churches to do anything.-- Katherine Ragsdale